Customer ServiceConsumer FacingVerified
Reviewed and published by trentmaziarz, March 23, 2026. Discovered and drafted by our automated research pipeline.
UTK's IT department runs a chatbot named Smokey inside its help portal at help.utk.edu. The bot answers common tech questions — like how to reset a password or access email — so students and staff can get help at any hour without waiting for a human agent.
Details
Smokey serves as the first point of contact in UTK's IT support workflow, handling routine queries before routing more complex issues to human HelpDesk staff. It operates within the OIT Service Portal and draws on the university's Knowledge Base of support articles. Human support is available alongside Smokey via phone (865-974-9900), live chat during business hours (Monday–Friday, 8am–5pm ET), and a walk-in center at Hodges Library Commons.
Products affected
OIT Service Portal (help.utk.edu)UTK HelpDesk
Sources & Evidence
Company Disclosure
Other practices by University of Tennessee
ProductivityUTK offers Zoom AI Companion to all faculty, staff, and students in its university Zoom environment, providing opt-in AI features that automatically generate text summaries of meetings, highlight key moments in recordings, and support interactive whiteboard content creation.ProductivityIn March 2026, UTK deployed the UT AI Hub, a centralized platform giving all students, faculty, and staff free access to full paid versions of multiple leading AI models — including ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, Google Gemini, and Meta Llama — through a single secure university portal.ProductivityUTK offers Microsoft Copilot to all students, faculty, and staff at no extra cost through their existing Microsoft 365 accounts. It can summarize emails, draft documents, run Excel formulas using plain-language commands, and generate images — all within familiar Office apps.
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